The EU and the US: Heading Down the Same Road

Both the EU and the US are in the news today, and the news is centered around the massive, unsustainable debt of both - and as a result, both are in crisis mode.

First, we see updates on the EU:

Brussels' Eurocrats see EU project in 'lasting crisis'

A recent survey has found deep pessimism among European Commission staff on a wide range of issues, including the course of European integration over the past decade and the likelihood of success of the EU's strategy for economic growth. Some 63% partially or totally agreed that "the European model has entered into a lasting crisis".

69% also considered the need for the European Union to have more charismatic leaders. This was perhaps a reference to the little-known figures that were chosen to lead the EU following the passage of the Lisbon Treaty, notably European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and High Representative for External Affairs Catherine Ashton

Isn't that an interesting tidbit? 69% feel that the EU needs more charismatic leaders. How prophetic. They will most certainly receive an answer to this wish.

Italy and Spain must pray for a miracle

If the ECB's Jean-Claude Trichet is right in claiming that Europe was on the brink of a 1930s financial cataclysm a year ago - and I think he is - it is hard see how the threat is any less serious right now.

Fall-out from Greece flattened Portugal and Ireland last week. It is engulfing Spain and Italy, countries with €6.3 trillion of public and private debt between them.

"We believe the European sovereign crisis might be entering a new phase with contagion reaching the larger economies," said Jacques Cailloux, chief Europe economist at RBS.

What can the eurozone now do to trump its last "shock and awe"? More loan packages solve nothing. Pretending that this is just a liquidity crisis will no longer wash.

The implications of this are profound. Germany must now be willing either to buy or guarantee Spanish and Italian debt, and in doing so to cross the Rubicon to fiscal and political union, or accept that EMU must break up with calamitous consequences for German foreign policy. Large matters, beyond the intellectual vision of Germany's current leaders.

Top eurozone officials meet amid alarm on Italy

Top eurozone officials are meeting on Monday (11 July) morning to discuss the debt crisis in the 17-nation single currency region amid concerns that it could spread to Italy.

The meeting, called by European council President Herman Van Rompuy, is expected to focus on the second bailout for Greece and its implications for broader eurozone stability.

Van Rompuy called the event on Saturday, the day after Italian stock markets suffered a dramatic fall of 3.5 percent.

Monday morning's extraordinary meeting comes ahead of an earlier-scheduled meeting of eurozone finance ministers in the evening.

Also see:

EU stance shifts on Greece default

Now we turn to the U.S., who has very similar problems:

Our Retreat from Prosperity

The process that built the United States into the world's wealthiest country has reversed; it's tearing down what it once built.

If free-market capitalism carries the seeds of its own destruction, so does the suffocating, stultifying statism that results from it. Call it socialism, liberalism, Progressivism, Communism, or anything else you like; it ends of its own incompetence. The politicians chasing power have to escalate their promises over time to hold off rivals.

The world's resources are finite and at some point, political promises outrun the available resources and the edifice collapses.

That's what brought down the Communists and it's what we see happening in Europe and in the U.S. now, with governments quite deliberately pushing things. With green excuses, governments are depressing the living standards of the developed world, primarily by driving up the price of energy and secondarily via regulation, continually limiting industrial production and individual choices.

It would be nice to know what will follow the present statist cycle after its financial collapse, but that isn't given us to know. We can predict statism following free-market capitalism and we can predict statism's ultimate collapse, though not neatly wrapped with a date. But it's not far off, by appearances. Statism self-destructs by impoverishing itself; all you have to do is look around.

Free-market capitalism creates wealth; Progressivism destroys wealth, except for the political elite who acquire it via appropriation from others.

Checklist: America Meets 90% of Karl Marx's Demands

I recently re-read “The Communist Manifesto” written by Karl Marx in 1848.

What I read was a bit shocking. Marx had “10 planks” that this evil manifesto was based upon and he advocated the use of any means to accomplish these socialist goals including violent revolutions. The planks are listed bellow, followed by my comment on how it applies to America today:

After listing the specific items, we see the conclusions in this article:

We do have the power to vote out the irresponsible government officials who are marching us down the road to serfdom.

Inflation, high taxes, unemployment, a collapsing dollar, and soon to be rising interest rates will eventually destroy our investment portfolios unless there is a re-allocation into asset classes that do well during times of economic, political, geopolitical, and social turbulence.

We need to act now so everything we’ve worked our entire life to accumulate doesn’t erode because of stupid public policy that we can’t control in the short term.

But, first and foremost, we need to get on our knees and pray like our lives depend on it — because it does!

Not just for us, but for the sake of future generations. The government is marching us down the road to serfdom, but that doesn’t mean we have to join the parade. Time is short – be wise, be bold, be courageous, wake up and act!

SmartMeters Outsmarting America; Agenda 21 in Your Home

Coming soon to your home unless you stop them – and you may never even get a choice – the insidious Smart Meter and the end of privacy as we know it. People don’t want these Big Brother devices installed and watching/recording their every move. Things are about to get ‘real’ between the government/Agenda 21 pushers and We The People. And if a fight comes, my money is on the Tea Party – they are a scrappy bunch and freedom lovers to boot.

The dance has already begun in certain places around the nation. In Marin, California, residents are slugging it out with PG&E and the FCC, UCLA’s epidemiology department and the California Public Utilities Commission. Looks like the Nanny State spared no expense in the fight to control Americans and I do mean ‘control.’

So much for getting your permission. They are going to cram Agenda 21 and Smart Meters right down America’s throat whether they want it or not.

Saddle up boys and girls… Things are about to get very interesting in these United States of America. In a fascist sort of way that is.

In the name of reducing energy costs, the government wants to replace all meters with these creepy Smart Meters. The meters will cause energy bills to ‘necessarily skyrocket’ (wait, where have I heard that before?) and have a whole set of nifty nasty side effects such as failing systems and the opening of your personal information to hackers.

It’s obviously not to save money as the costs are astronomical. It’s also not to save the environment as it virtually does nothing to help it. But it does give government control over you – when and for how long to shut down your power, how much you have to pay for said power, usage monitoring, etc.

This is the Progressive groundwork to drastically raise the cost of energy, raise taxes and fees and to box Americans in, corralling them with judgments over their income, credit ratings, habits, etc. It’s a Marxist’s dream come true and the ultimate nightmare for freedom-loving Americans. How do you like Obama now America? Time for a do-over in 2012 – if we get that far.

We shouldn't be too upset - this is all what we would expect from biblical prophecy. America has to fall from world-power status and the EU must go through a huge transformation to reach the 10 kings phase in development. As stated before, it usually requires a crisis in order to precipitate big changes and we are indeed seeing big crises within both the EU and the US.

Meanwhile, we see another prophetic development coming into focus:

Mullen: China now a world power

The top U.S. military officer declared Sunday that China "has arrived as a world power," and that previous U.S. descriptions of China as a "rising power" are now a thing of the past.

U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen made the remarks during an address at a university in Beijing at the start of a four-day visit.

"China today is a different country than it was 10 years ago, and it certainly will continue to change over the next 10 years," Mullen told the audience at Renmin University. "It is no longer a rising power. It has, in fact, arrived as a world power."

Mullen also noted China's growing military strength.

"With greater military power must come greater responsibility, greater cooperation and, just as important, greater transparency," he said. "Without these things, the expansion of military power in your region, rather than making it more secure and stable could have the opposite effect."

The prophetic clock is right on schedule.

Despite having to watch the continual erosion of the United States and watching the EU "crisis" with great interest - it is somewhat comforting to have the constant reminders that God's word is true and sure.

There is nothing happening on the world stage which is not fully consistent with prophecy and what we would expect to see from a literal view of the prophetic scriptures.

We are watching God's plan reach fulfillment and we must never forget that fact, despite the ominous news that surrounds us.

Jesus knew that this would happen and He also knew that His Bride, the Church, would be seeing these things with great concern and apprehension. To counter this, He gave us specific instructions for coping:

"When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift your heads, because your redemption is drawing near"
(Luke 21:28)

"Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that the kingdom of God is near."
(Luke 21:31)

In those brief words, Jesus described where our focus needs to be in these last days, as we see the Tribulation approaching.

Rather than concerning ourselves with the wreckage on earth - as government bodies ineffectually move from crisis to crisis, all while worsening everything that they touch - Jesus wants us to shift our focus to Him and His promises of what is to come.

Jesus said that when we see these signs, His coming wouldn't be long.

And in the meantime, we are to focus on Him and Him alone. There is no mention of having fear over what is happening on earth and obsessing over the failure of human governments.

Rather - we are to be looking towards Jesus and His promises - His promises to His beloved Bride.

Maranatha! Keep looking up!